Stupid characters in anime.

[elwen]

It's been a long time since I've posted about anime. Don't worry, I won't torment you by posting about all the shows I am watching and have finished. I just noticed that lately I seem to be really intolerant of annoying and stupid characters. I used to put up with them fairly well, but the past few shows they've just made me grit my teeth and consider dropping the series. I'm talking about Youko from Twelve Kingdoms, the oldest sister (I forget her name) in Read or Die TV, and Toboe from Wolf's Rain. They all just drove me nuts. I guess I ended up getting over it -- although I thought Youko was improving at the end of episode 3, and now she's taken a different turn for the worse -- and am still watching all three series, but still. It seemed a lot less bearable than usual. Oddly enough, I've been rewatching Sailor Moon lately, and Usagi hasn't annoyed me very much at all. Maybe it's because she tends to get her just desserts more often, or at least Rei will scold her. The sister in R.O.D. totally gets away with it and feels no remorse, Youko has issues, and Toboe's just clueless. I dunno.

...okay, I just wanted to rant about that briefly. Back to not posting. :P

Comments

[lirillith.livejournal.com]

The thing about Twelve Kingdoms is that there's real character development. Which means the writer saw no problem with starting characters out as weepy idiots, psychopaths, soulless, embittered, self-absorbed brats, or self-pitying twits, to name four major characters from varying points in the series - only the first two appear within the first twenty episodes - because they'll all get better later. I'm possibly the only fan on the planet who really likes the psycho, but all the others redeem themselves in the eyes of the majority. So PLEASE hang in there because I want the whole world to love 12K as much as I do.

[ctrl-a.livejournal.com]

Yeah, fortunately I'd read a couple reviews that talk about how incredibly much character development goes on in the series, so I'm willing to wait it out. Otherwise I might have been tempted to think it was like Alien 9, in which the main character never got even the least bit better (at least not in the anime). She was absolutely the most annoying, helpless, useless, whiny crybaby ever. >_

[mergle.livejournal.com]

Ditto what Liri said about Youko. She and Sugimoto both start out where they are so that they have somewhere to go. This isn't the traditional "character overcomes loss of family/tragic past/generic fear and becomes badass as a result" development one sees in a lot of fiction, particularly fantasy and anime. These transformations are often ones that deal with more ordinary aspects of human nature - feeling sorry for yourself, wanting to please everyone, etc - despite the fact that the characters are in extraordinary circumstances.

As for Youko and Sugimoto in particular, give them time. When I first started watching the series, I was told very forcfully by someone not to judge it by the first DVDs worth of episodes. I think she's right, so I pass on that advice to you. :)

[azabaro.livejournal.com]

Somehow Youko's behavior doesn't bother me. Something about the way she's screwed up even on Earth, and the suddenness with which her whole life is changed, and the fact that she ends up having to kill things all over the place, and that somebody is obviously trying to mess with her mind...somehow all that excuses a certain amount of being screwed up. As long as she moves through the stages of coping at least a little faster than a certain Go professional, I don't mind.

Sugimoto's a different story. Again, I understand the idea of somebody who's so screwed up that they become a sociopath (or I wouldn't be able to enjoy series like Narutaru and Death Note). I'm just annoyed at her inability to understand (or perhaps her ability to be in denial of) genre conventions. I mean, she's convinced that she's the chosen one even though Youko is the one Keiki came to Earth for, and Youko's the one who looks different in their new location, and Youko's the one who somehow speaks the language there yet can still speak Japanese...it would be different if this "transported to a fantasy world" didn't seem to be exactly the sort of thing Sugimoto had been waiting for. Hopefully now that she can see how she's been used she'll be a little more realistic about her role in the world.

As for Toboe and the R.o.D sister you mentioned (Maggie? Michelle?) - I can't be as annoyed by either of them because they don't seem much less practical or sensible than anybody else in their respective series.